Solus was sitting against the wall looking at the screen in front of him. He had been doing so for a while now. After having returned to the second floor he had hidden in the triangular room. Then, having put his arm back together and hoping it would fix itself, he had decided to check out what all those status “dings” had been. Calling it up, however, had shown him something unexpected.
> High-density energy object detected within manafield
> Congratulations on finding an as of yet unknown object!
> Opening shop window
> ERROR no connection detected
> Limited system use
Would you like to sell the information of the newly found object? Please be aware, the object will be disassembled so its data can be stored. Due to limited system availability, there are only three reward options.
YES / NO
Race
skeleton
Name
Os Solus
Type
stable
Class
-
Age
unknown
Sex
male/-ERROR
Strength
2/8
Constitution
3/6
Dexterity
2/6
Endurance
*
Intelligence
2/2
Wisdom
0/1
Charisma
ERROR
Manafield
25/100
Inscriptions
2/2
Mana generation
1
Reading the lines a few times, Solus decided he could always find more worms, but he had no idea if a similar option would present itself again, so selected yes.
“There are more of those worms, this might help me do something about that..” he thought.
He felt a small weight leave the hand where he had been holding the bead. The status window disappeared, replaced by three smaller windows positioned next to each other. The first one showed a skull with two skeletal fists next to it.
“One: Rank C strength evolution (skeleton-warrior) - Will add to the base inscription of any skeleton with a type other than unstable. Increases bone density and ability to use mana to strengthen physique. Changes two of the four available inscription upgrade slots to strength type. Enhances strength inscriptions placed inside these slots. Limits the maximum intelligence. Can only be upgraded with other, higher rank, strength type evolutions.”
The second showed a skull with two open hands.
“Two: Rank C dexterity evolution (skeleton-warrior) - Will add to the base inscription of any skeleton with a type other than unstable. Increases bone density and ability to use mana to balance physique. Changes two of the four available inscription upgrade slots to dexterity type. Enhances dexterity inscriptions placed inside these slots. Limits the maximum intelligence. Can only be upgraded with other, higher rank, dexterity type evolutions.”
The last one showed a glowing skull.
“Three: Rank B type upgrade (elite) - Will increase the complexity of the base inscription, opening up more choices for future evolutionary choices. A small increase in maximum intelligence and wisdom. An increase in bone density, resulting in small increases in constitution and strength. Changes to the base inscription will add one extra upgrade slot, for a current total of five.”
Looking at the three choices, Solus wondered what to do. Each of them was interesting, but the fact that one was rank B made him wonder. Was B better than C? The thing that made him choose in the end, was intelligence. He knew he was not making the optimal choices and had gotten by mainly with luck. The fact that the worm had lost due to a lack of intelligence helped as well. Intelligence, he decided would be the most important thing, until he was smart enough to think differently. Looking at the third option, he chanted three. With an audible sparkling sound, his mana showed itself rapidly becoming brighter. Then the inscription started changing, producing small arcs of lighting that hit his bones and skull. All went black after that.
Gaining awareness, Solus raised his skull from the ground, where he had fallen inside his hiding place. His mind felt clear and things that had been fuzzy or lost to him started asked for his attention. Pushing the random thoughts back, he used his arm to get up. While doing so, he noticed that it had almost completely healed, only showing a few small cracks. Standing, he remembered how he had fought the worm.
“That was pure... dumb... luck...” He thought.
Raising himself into a seated position he looked around. What had previously seemed like a great hiding place now seemed like an open spot on a roof where he was visible from many sides.
“Something has changed!” He thought, pulling up his status information.
Looking at it, he saw a line at the top of the screen. “Intelligence raised over information limitation threshold. More information unlocked. Focus on any item on the screen to get more information on it.”
Looking down at the numbers that seemed to represent his current abilities, he noticed his manafield had increased a lot, now being 79/100. His intelligence was 4/6 and his wisdom 1/4. Constitution and strength had both been raised by one. His mana regeneration had increased from one to three.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Reading the line again, he wondered what he would find. Concentrating, he looked at the word ‘skeleton’ and a new screen entered his vision.
“Skeletons are the primary undead, summoned when death energy in any area is raised high enough. Research shows they are remnants of souls that are pulled together and condensed to form a new consciousness. The soul pulls in mana that is used to hold together the bones. Then, the soul enters the bones and starts generating a small manafield with death energy. Because of the limit on death energy and the fact that life energy disturbs the undead manafield, skeletons are mainly used inside special regions. They are then used as the base for evolutions that are more capable. To evolve a skeleton minion one must provide it with plenty of undead energy to increase its manafield to a hundred. Based on the previous inscriptions on the manafield, one can then evolve the minion into many different trees. Please remember that after any evolution a skeleton might become another type of undead and will lose all of its previous inscriptions. The new inscription will be based on the inscriptions that where there before. The possible evolutions depend on many factors: learned skills, the type, and the base inscription. However, one of the most important things is bone density. A skeleton will need a high bone density to be able to increase the strain it can handle from the magic that moves it. As skeletons have no muscles, magic is there only way to move, and it also limits their potential. Thus, to handle high-quality inscriptions, make sure your skeletal minion has sufficient bone density.
Currently available evolution choices: Locked (Manafield requirement not fulfilled) “
“I am a summoned minion?” Solus thought.
He wasn't sure if he should feel anything about this revelation. He didn't feel anything at the moment, so perhaps it was not a big deal? He thought it was probably a big deal, though. Looking back to the status, he was a bit overwhelmed with all the potential information he could get. Without his increase in intelligence, he was sure he would never be able to understand what he saw. Shaking himself from his reveries, he closed the status window. Looking around his tent shaped room. He didn't see anything of use, so he left and walked out onto the open roof. It was daytime and the sun was shining down on the whole town. Walking to the edge of the roof, he looked around and saw a few wandering skeletons. The roof was too exposed, if there was anything out there hunting him, he would be an easy target. He needed a place to stay that was safe. He glanced towards the center of town.
“I wonder if the sphere is still there..” Solus thought.
A while later Solus was rushing through the destroyed town, jumping over or dodging everything in his path. He reveled in the increased maneuverability he had. He now had much better planning and could scale anything his height or lower. Feeling the emotion rushing in for a moment, he tried to pinpoint where it came from. If he were just a skeletal minion, he should have no emotions. So what was going on? And he did enjoy the feelings a lot, so if he wanted to find out where they came from. Concentrating on the fleeting emotion, he felt it disappear back into the back of his mind, apparently not paying any intention to his wishes.
“No matter, I will find out eventually.” He promised himself.
He rushed past a street corner, hanging onto it with one hand and swirling around. Hitting the ground, he did a sliding turn to face the center of town. The building he had not seen in a few weeks, was still standing. He glanced around the decimated square and saw no skeletons. There where only the shadows of a few buildings still standing, drawing long shapes across the square. Seeing no obvious threats, he walked towards the center building and entered it without any trouble. In front of him, in the center of the room, the sphere lay inert. Just like when he had left it, there were no more lights inside. Walking closer, Solus put his skeleton hand on the sphere. Nothing changed and the sphere felt smooth to his touch. Wondering for a second, he rubbed his hand across the surface. How could he even feel anything?
“More questions, always more questions…” he thought.
Looking around the room, it still seemed to have no other paths. He walked to a wall and hit it a few times. It was solid, it should hold for a long time still. Looking at the exit, he knew he needed a way to block it if he wanted this place to be his hiding spot. If only there was a room with a door, that would be perfect. Walking in a large circle around the room, tapping the wall everywhere, he had to admit there was nothing there. He headed out and circled the square and the buildings, but there wasn't anything he could lift that would block the door. Taking one last peek at the sphere inside the building, he headed off and ran towards the church area. The church had no buildings next to it so he circled it to look for entrances. There were none except for the large one at the front. Walking inside he stopped and glanced around. Whatever had been in here, had disappeared like all the other things that weren't made of stone. Weird... shouldn't there be other things? other materials? He shelved the thought for later, with the others he needed to ponder over. He would get to that after he found a good hiding place he hoped. Walking into the church, he knew right away he would have the same trouble here. Nothing he could move would block the door. Searching the entire church he only found a very small staircase leading up the tower. Climbing to the top, he found a very small room that was unfit as a hiding place. How would he leave if something was at the bottom? Jump and shatter on the ground? He walked out of the church and stalked into town, he needed to find a place, preferably before it went dark.
Skeletons can't grunt in effort, but had someone been able to hear in Solus’ mind, they would have been amazed.
“Move… MOVEEE … GAHFHH”
Feeling a few emotions popping in and out of existence, Solus was using all the power his boney body could deliver to push a slab of stone towards the edge of a roof. It wasn't a very high building, but it had only a single normal entrance. Pushing the slab, it moved another meter. After one more heroic push, it started sliding off the edge of the roof. The slab, not even that heavy, fell down creating a pit in the ground and a banging sound that reverberated through the town.
SLAMMMM
A few pieces fell off and crashed into the walls around it, while the slab fell back against the building. Solus walked to the edge and looked at the slab. It was perfectly placed, about time... after two failures. Turning around he rushed towards the stairs, down them and into a dark room. Almost no light entered the room. A single opening could be seen in one of the sides, where a window showed the wall of another building. Heading there, Solus stepped on the previously prepared stones and managed to grab the ledge. He climbed up and looked at the small, rubble-filled alleyway. One of the entrances was blocked, and the other had a stone in front of it he could barely cross.
Running towards it he leaped up and over the large stone. He walked to the front of the building and felt content. This would do nicely. Two exits, one on the roof and one at the bottom. Unless a worm managed to fly, it would only be able to enter through the window. Looking at the darkening sky, he picked up a few stones and threw them against the slab in front of the door without any good reason. He was content. After he entered back into his new hideout he placed a rock against the wall opposite the window and sat his bony frame on top of it. Finally, he had time to think in peace about what to do.
When the light started filtering through small cracks in the building, Solus was still sitting on the slab. He had read more information during the course of the night than ever before in his short unlife. However, he had a much bigger grasp on his current situation. He understood what the attributes would do for him. They were nothing more than a representation of his physical and magical presence.
For instance, strength. It wasn't that he got stronger if he got another point of strength. It was that he got a higher value because he got stronger. To become stronger, for a skeleton, meant he needed to increase the density of his bones so he could use more magic on them to move.
Dexterity meant he needed more refined control of the magic to move his bones. But that was only how it worked for skeletons, for something with muscles it worked differently again. To increase his bone density he would need to absorb crystalized energy. Which, when he first read it made him ‘sigh’. The object the worm had dropped was a crystalized energy sphere, not a marble. He could have absorbed it, by focusing his manafield on it. But then, he would never have gotten smart enough without the new abilities to even realize it, he reminded himself.
To increase the control of his manafield was more difficult or easier depending on how he looked at it. It meant actually using it. The more he used it, the more his dexterity grew. But there was overlap as well. He would still need a certain amount of bone density to get a higher dexterity though, but not nearly as high as with strength.
Then there where the maxima on attributes, which were actually maxima mainly decided by the control he had over his manafield and the density of his bones.
Increasing his intelligence was currently the easiest. Simply put, it meant thinking smart thoughts. The problem he had though, was that his current form had a very low maximum intelligence. He had already increased it from four to five just by reading all the information this evening and actually understanding most of it. One more point and he would need to either change his type or evolve to increase it any more.
Endurance, being related to things a skeleton didn't have, was still the same strange symbol. It indicated that he didn't have to worry about it, just like sleep which he had only some foreign notion of.
The rest of the attributes had a mixture of things they relied on, and he hadn’t figured that all out yet. Constitution seemed to be limited by bone density, strength and the maximum manafield, and when all three had the needed value it would increase.
Then there was wisdom. He had found out it was about knowledge, but there was more to it than only learning things. According to the explanation, he needed to completely master something. What this meant he was unsure, and seeing his 1 in wisdom that would most likely stay that way for a while.
Now the thing was, the attributes were not there without reason. They were requirements for both type, evolution and some skills. Skills though were something he couldn't understand. There where only references to it, but nothing that actually showed him what they were.
Standing, and producing a slight crackling sound from his spine, that unbend after the long night, Solus had formed his plan, and was ready to implement it. He wanted to feel more, he was fascinated by the different emotions and he wanted them. To get them he would need to evolve. For that, he would need both more bone density and a higher manafield. And there was one way to get at least the bone density. Worms. They might not drop a crystalized energy sphere every time, at least he didn't know yet. But he could try. Since he had fought the last worm, he was now faster and more powerful. He was also smart enough to plan, because without weapons he would never be able to fight one head on.
So that left only one thing, traps.